External relations

Club of Public Service Mediators

The Mediator is a member of the Club of Public Service Mediators. This association features organisational mediators (companies, local government, local authorities, etc.) who share the same mediation values in France.

The Club aims to promote mediation in accordance with the principles set forth in the Charter for Public Service Mediators. As such, it encourages mediators to share best practices to ensure a high-quality mediation service.

The Club also allows local authorities to network with mediators and provides an insight into their professional context, their work practices and their expectations and needs. The Chairman of the Club of Mediators thus set up a working group responsible for generating ideas during the preliminary stages of drafting the ADR Regulation of 20 August 2015.

EEMG (European Energy Mediator Group)

The Mediator is a member of EEMG – “European Energy Mediator Group“. EEMG is a group of consumer mediators for European energy companies. The group’s principal objective is to share best practices by enriching the experiences of its various members as well as promote in-house mediation, its purpose and its value added among companies and consumers in the energy sector and also among European bodies as a way of settling disputes without legal involvement.

Consumer organisations

Ever since the ENGIE Group’s Mediation service was launched in 1999, the Mediator has actively maintained relations with consumer organisations.

He meets them approximately three times a year. These meetings represent the ideal opportunity to discuss changes in consumer mediation in general, the ENGIE Group’s Mediation service in particular, trends in consumers’ expectations and the most frequent types of dispute encountered by the ENGIE Group’s companies.

The Mediator places great importance in the opinion of such consumer organisations. Their views enable him to compare his conception of consumers’ needs (perceived only through the types of requests received) with the wider insight provided by consumer organisations.

European Platform for settling disputesADR Directive provides that the European Commission, in addition to the list of approved mediators would available to consumers:

1 to 1 informative site on the Alternative Dispute Resolution: This site is now operational,

1 platform on which the consumer who does not directly found the Ombudsman that research could file his application: it also functions since February 15, 2016.

Site of french consumption mediationThe Secretariat of State for Trade, Crafts, Consumer and Social economy also posted on February 17, 2016, an online platform for consumers.
It allows them free access to the necessary information to exercise their right to mediation.
It also provides a list of approved mediators of consumption in France, by industry.
It is accessible via this link.

ENGIE Group entities concerned by the Mediation service

When appointed in July 2014, the Mediator defined a plan to develop alternative dispute resolution within all subsidiaries and divisions, especially through the ENGIE Group’s Mediation service.

He pursued that plan in 2015.

The Mediator has prioritised the following actions:

companies with residential customers in France:

following the incorporation of the ADR Directive into French law (Regulation of 20 August 2015), it is essential for the Group that all its subsidiaries and divisions with residential customers strictly comply with the Regulation’s requirements and inform their customers about their complaints handling process and their mediator. Most of them have chosen the ENGIE Group’s Mediator. Others have chosen another approved mediator in line with their business activities. All entities must comply with the Regulation no later than 1 January 2016, unless their branch of industry has yet to establish a sector-specific mediator..

companies with residential customers in Europe:

for the same reasons as in France, the ENGIE Group insists that its subsidiaries conform to the ADR Directive and its local version in all countries in which the Group is active: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Romania. For most of the subsidiaries, the ENGIE Group’s Mediator provides management with functional support for implementing an alternative dispute resolution process and the choice of mediator (when local legislation offers several alternatives). The other companies in France (with B2B customers: businesses, local authorities, local government, etc.): the ENGIE Group is convinced that alternative dispute resolution is the best solution for settling disputes. That is why the Mediator promotes the use of mediation among all entity directors to assist them with transforming their methods and choosing a mediation system; in most cases, the Group’s companies choose the ENGIE Group’s Mediator.

the other companies in Europe and the rest of the world:

the Mediator also provides functional support to managers of those companies when changing model (systematic use of legal action when the company and its customer or supplier fail to reach an amicable solution) and when implementing and developing dispute resolution and proposing a mediator. In most cases, it is not appropriate for the ENGIE Group’s Mediator to provide mediation services directly in these areas, so local mediators are therefore prioritised. The Mediator may nevertheless provide functional support on a case-by-case basis.

The European Consumer Centre website

The European Consumer Centre (ECC) is a Franco-German association for information and advice to consumers located in the city of Kehl / Strasbourg, created in 1993 on the occasion of the establishment of the european internal market. Declared of public utility, it receives public subsidies from France, Germany and the European Union.

The European Consumer Centre has corporate purpose of “guaranteeing and promoting the rights of consumers in Europe”

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